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Understanding the relationship between the mind and the body remains one of the most vexed problems in philosophy, cognitive science, and neuroscience. Physicalism has not reigned unchallenged, however. A number of arguments have been raised which promote dualism in its place -- the view that fundamentally, the mind and body are separate.

Gr 5-7–Crow was once a regular boy who played baseball and had friends and loving parents. But now, he’s dead. At first, being dead wasn’t so bad, but then his rotting flesh began attracting maggots. He couldn’t eat or sleep. His parents divorced. His mother will tell him only that his parents “wished him back to life,” but what kind of life? He’s trapped in a house kept purposefully cold to slow the putrefaction of his flesh. When Melody and her father move in next door, she and Crow become secret friends against the wishes of their parents. Together, they begin to unravel the terrible secret of his parents’ wish. Their forbidden friendship will be tested as they face a series of deadly challenges in their quest for the truth. Though the book’s description promises humor, narrator Robbie Daymond’s presentation of Crow is morose and forlorn. His cheerful portrayal of Melody offers the only break from the macabre atmosphere. VERDICT - Not for the squeamish, this one will be best for middle school fans of ghoulish favorites like The Night Gardener (Abrams, 2014) or The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls (S. & S., 2012). [“A great recommendation to middle grade fans of dark humor”: SLJ 7/15 review of the Crown book.]

Polly Parker has things good in deadly chaos after the zombie apocalypse. She’s snug as a bug in a secure building in Chicago, just waiting for the wakers to die. She occasionally ventures outside to give herself something to do, and when the mathematician runs into Tye LeBow, she turns her cushy life on end. Letting Tye into her home, and her life, is a huge risk for Polly, one that she’s very careful about making. The last time she tried to help someone, she was viciously assaulted, proving that the zombies aren’t the only monsters prowling the streets.

Tye is just looking for his partner, Jackson (you can read about her adventures in Waking Up Dead – highly recommended!) when he runs into Polly and almost gets himself blown to bits in the process. The two form an uneasy alliance after escaping from a mob of zombies. Impressed by Polly’s bravery, as well as how she’s been able to hide for the past two years, he is still apprehensive that her luck won’t hold out forever. When her safe haven is overrun, the two head south to the refuge camp in Laredo, dodging danger and death every step of the way.

I really liked Polly. She’s a nerd, but she’s a bomb-making, sharp-shooter kind of a nerd. She has believable fears about being eaten by zombies, but when it comes time to save someone, she’s there with her gun and her grit. She was a nice match for Tye, but I thought he was just a little too good to be true. He’s ruthless with his ax, but he’s kind, gentle, and possesses a positive attitude that I would be hard pressed to match in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

I really enjoyed this up until the point Polly was bitten, and then it didn’t hold my attention as well. The secondary characters weren’t appealing either. Seb’s character was inconsistent, and I didn’t buy into his mistake that allowed the zombies to escape from his lab. Jackson just grated here, while I loved her in Waking Up Dead, and Luke was completely under-utilized here. He was pretty much just Jackson’s arm candy, which was disappointing.

The action up to Tye and Polly reaching Laredo was blistering, and what I enjoy best about zombie books. They were constantly on the run, dodging from evermore cunning monsters that want nothing more than to eat them. Their flight from Chicago is tense and nerve-wracking, and kept me turning the pages.

Then they get to Laredo and everything came to a screeching halt. If you are more interested in the possible recovery from a devastating zombie virus, than this will be right up your alley. Seb, a scientist, believes he finally has the key to manufacturing a cure for the plague that has brought a bloody and violent end to the world. I found the lab time tedious and wasn’t as engaged in that aspect of the story.

Grade: B-

Review copy provided by publisher

About the book:

After surviving the zombie apocalypse for two years, Tye LeBow never expected to be saved from a hungry gang of zombies by a geek with a bad attitude and a penchant for explosives. Tye can’t quite work out why scientist Polly Parker saved him. She doesn’t want his protection, and she certainly doesn’t want his company. But Tye has no intention of leaving the beguiling geek behind.

Polly doesn’t want to leave her home, but when the wakers begin to show signs of a burgeoning intelligence, heading south is the only option. With a car packed full of homemade explosives, and Tye’s very large axe, they are ready for the road trip of their lives.

Bombs and blades aren’t the only keys to survival–they’ll need to rely on each other, in a way that neither could have imagined…

Would you rather be a werewolf, a zombie or a vampire? Enter to win an autographed copy of Monsterland, by Michael Phillip Cash; plus a living dead themed travel mug and a $50 Amazon gift card!
Giveaway begins November 14, 2015, at 12:01 A.M. PST and ends December 16, 2015, at 11:59 P.M. PST.

A lot of newish comics companies have launched of late—Double Take, Aftershock, Z2—and I’m guessing they would all like to have films made from their comics. Well, Double Take, the branch of gaming company Take Two that is run by former Marvel to exec Bill James, has hit that brass ring. Lions gate has signed […]

0 Comments on Lionsgate bringing Double Take’s Z-men to the screen as of 10/15/2015 4:50:00 PM

I recently read *ILLUMINAE by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. You may have already heard of this book, as everyone seems to be RAVING about it. But I thought I should just give you my thoughts, and a little caution before you decide to drop the big bucks on this one.
THE 5 BIG PROBLEMS WITH ILLUMINAE
by Andye
1. The cover.
Ok, yeah. The cover is freaking amazing. The problem, though, is

0 Comments on 5 Big Problems With ILLUMINAE by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff as of 10/7/2015 1:02:00 AM

Whether they be songs about angels or demons, Heaven or Hell, the theme of the afterlife has inspired countless musicians of varying genres and has embedded itself into the lyrics of many popular hits. Though their styles may be different, artists show that our collective questions and musings about the afterlife provide us with a common thread across humanity. Here are some of the songs that best represent this wide range of emotions that many people have about what lies beyond.

I read Rot & Ruin last year and loved it. It was one of my top 10 reads for the year. I loved how Benny and Tom’s relationship changed as they faced one life-threatening adventure after another, and how Benny grew from an angry, petulant teen in to a courageous young man. When he learned the truth about First Night, when the zombie plague wiped out most of human population, he finally saw his brother in a new light and forgave him for abandoning his mother. It’s one best bonding moments in young adult fiction, but really, the whole book is about Benny learning how to come to terms with his feelings for his brother.

Dust & Decay didn’t work as well for me. It’s still a page turner, with loads of pulse-pounding action, but the deeper emotions from Rot & Ruin are lacking until the very end. After seeing the plane at the end of the previous book, Nix and Tom want to go and find it. Where there is a functioning plane, there must be an enclave of survivors with more technology than they have. Lilah doesn’t like being in town, and Benny’s just along for the ride. The closer it comes time for them to leave, the less certain he is that he really wants to go. Nix, however, has nothing left in town since her mother died, and she wants to see what’s out beyond the fence. She’s tired of being afraid and she’s tired of living with a bunch of people who are terrified at the thought of expanding out into the Ruin.

Things go wrong almost from the moment they step into the Ruin. They are attacked by wild animals, keep stumbling upon zombies, and run into creepy individuals that make even Tom uneasy. The predicaments they find themselves in are exciting, and I constantly wondered how they were going to get out of them unscathed. It really was hard to put the book down.

The disconnect for me is with the villains. They are one-dimensional, and that made them boring. They are all bad, for no reason. They don’t have an interesting backstory to explain their brutal ways, and because they are defined only by their evil deeds, with no real reason why they are committing these atrocities, there was nothing compelling about them. I love a bad guy that has some depth, that I can feel even a twinge of compassion for, because something happened to turn them into monsters. The only thing that happened to these guys is the same thing that happened to everyone else, but most of the surviving humans don’t run around killing children and anyone else weaker than them.

There is a terrible, horrible thing that happens near the end that also spoiled some of my enjoyment, but after reading George RR Martin, the demise of favorite characters doesn’t pack quite the same punch as it used to. Until that moment, there wasn’t much emotional connection to the story for me, and that’s why Dust & Decay fell a bit flat for me. That being said, it’s still an adrenaline rush, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Flesh & Bone.

Grade: B-

Review copy read at Scribd

From Amazon:

Six months have passed since the terrifying battle with Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer in the zombie-infested mountains of the Rot & Ruin. It’s also six months since Benny Imura and Nix Riley saw something in the air that changed their lives. Now, after months of rigorous training with Benny’s zombie-hunter brother Tom, Benny and Nix are ready to leave their home forever and search for a better future. Lilah the Lost Girl and Benny’s best friend Lou Chong are going with them.

Sounds easy. Sounds wonderful. Except that everything that can go wrong does. Before they can even leave there is a shocking zombie attack in town. But as soon as they step into the Rot & Ruin they are pursued by the living dead, wild animals, insane murderers and the horrors of Gameland –where teenagers are forced to fight for their lives in the zombie pits. Worst of all…could the evil Charlie Pink-eye still be alive?

In the great Rot & Ruin everything wants to kill you. Everything…and not everyone in Benny’s small band of travelers will make it out alive.

Please Remain Calm picks up right where This is Not a Test left off, but from Rhys’ POV. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I actually liked his narration better than Sloane’s. Rhys is a straight forward kind of guy, and while he is torn up over what he had to do to his parents on the first awful night of the zombie apocalypse, he has done a fairly good job of moving past the ordeal. While he does suffer from nightmares, he counts himself lucky to be alive, and he is determined to stay that way, so that his parents’ deaths will mean something. Unlike Sloane, he is not suicidal, and he strives to find some sort of normal in the new horror of his existence.

Rhys and Sloane are headed to Rayfield, where a refugee camp has supposedly been established. They make a major blunder, though, and are soon running desperately away from a group of zombies. They are separated, and Rhys is saved by Jesse and Lisa, a couple who are making their way to their safe house in the woods. They also have their four year old daughter with them, and Jesse is understandably suspicious of Rhys. He doesn’t trust him, and he doesn’t want to put his small family in danger. He warns Rhys that if he messes up, he won’t hesitate to eliminate him.

Please Remain Calm has a lot more action than This is Not a Test. Because Rhys and his new companions are outside, with no shelter, they are tempting targets for roaming zombies. Regardless of how careful they are, it’s inevitable that there will be encounters with the undead. They are adrenaline fueled battles for survival, against foes that just don’t stop. The zombies don’t ever quit, and where there is one, there are usually many more. Every shadow, every boulder, every tree is a possible hiding place, and the tension kept me flipping the pages. I gobbled this novella up in short order, and immediately hoped that there will be more in the future. The ending is ambiguous, leaving everything up in the air, so be forewarned.

Grade: B / B+

Review copy obtained from my local library

From Amazon:

In Please Remain Calm, the gripping sequel to Courtney Summers’ This is Not a Test, Rhys and Sloane are headed for a safe haven when they get separated along the way. Rhys is determined to reunite with Sloane until he discovers people who might need him more–people who offer him the closest he’ll get to everything he’s lost, if they can just hold on long enough. Rhys thinks he has what it takes to survive and find Sloane, but in a world overrun by the dead, there are no guarantees and the next leg of his journey will test him in unimaginable ways…

The FUBAR comic books might not be familiar to the traditional Wednesday Warrior, but they’re a major player in the growing zombie and anthology markets. Even though the one time it strayed from its anthology roots its Kickstarter raised over $95,000, FUBAR is committing to sharing a selection of short stories by a variety of creators. Next up are FUBAR: By The Sword and FUBAR: Declassified, exploring zombies during different periods of wartime. I spoke to the founder of FUBAR Press and major contributor to the series, Jeff McComsey, about crowdfunding the two graphic novels.

Art by Steve Becker.

Congrats on the success of the new Kickstarter! Did the stories collected in this campaign start before or after FUBAR: Mother Russia?

The stories in By The Sword and most of Declassified have been a long time coming. We’ve been publishing quite a few By The Sword stories as issues first, in the two-issue miniseries FUBAR: By the Sword and then in the Guts & Glory one-shot. Mother Russia’s success moved back the Kickstarter for By The Sword just because we needed a little more time to wrap up that campaign.

From FUBAR: By The Sword. Art by Chris Peterson. Story by Shawn Aldridge.

What made special ops and the periods of history covered in By The Sword the logical next projects for FUBAR?

The Special Ops stories are mostly made up of stuff Steve [Becker] and I wanted to draw and we just kind of came up with a reason afterwards. By The Sword was a natural extension of our American history volume. Plus we wanted to draw some swords and shields [laughs].

From FUBAR: Special Ops. Art by Steve Becker. Story by Jeff McComsey.

You’ve covered so much of world history at this point. What’s left to explore next?

We’ve got a whole music-themed issue that has already been unlocked as a stretch goal for the current campaign. After that, who knows!

FUBAR: Mother Russia. Art by Steve Becker.

All the FUBAR campaigns have done well, but what do you think made the Mother Russia Kickstarter in particular such a huge success?

Well, I think the standalone story nature versus the anthology is one aspect. Another would be I think it’s a neat story that we were able to convey with the little info you can when doing a Kickstarter. Kickstarter was also kind enough to feature us in one of their “Projects We Love” email blast and that really set the campaign off.

I always have one or two ideas for OGNs going at all times. I have a few projects I’ll be finishing up until summer but after that, if something crazy doesn’t come up, I’ll be working on one of those OGN ideas.

American Terror by Jeff McComsey.

FUBAR-related or no?

Well, Mother Russia 2 is one of them. I have a pretty fleshed out idea about where things go after the first volume. American Terror is another option. I also have a hankering to do a bio comic.

Would you use Kickstarter for all of those?

Most definitely. I plan to Kickstart projects until people stop backing them.

From FUBAR: Special Ops. Art by Steve Becker. Story by Jeff McComsey.

How do you think your career would be different without Kickstarter?

It’s hard to say, but I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get nearly as many books on the shelf.

Alterna Comics.

What makes Alterna Comics a good partner for FUBAR?

Alterna has a great business model for small press creators that are willing to help push their work. Alterna gets us into shops, book stores, ComiXology. It’s up to us to then get people to pick up those books and enjoy them.

At this point, after some really impressive Kickstarters, how much would you say FUBAR is a business and how much of it is a hobby for you and other contributors?

I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me it’s a business. Publishing, Kickstarters and all the other ephemera that pops up is itself a full-time job. Then I still have to get freelance work done. It can be tough. My love/need of drawing comics is only seconded by my love/need to publish/make comics.

From FUBAR: By The Sword. Art by Chris Peterson. Story by Shawn Aldridge.

I enjoyed Alison Kemper’s Donna of the Dead, so when I saw Dead Over Heels on Netgalley, I was all over it. I was expecting a continuation of that story, but Dead Over Heels features different characters. It is set during the same time period, in the mountains of North Carolina. It’s not as campy as the previous book, but once again, I was hooked and couldn’t step away from the zombie apocalypse.

Ava’s parents purchased a vacation home in rural North Carolina, so she’s stuck in the cold mountains during Thanksgiving break, instead of prowling the mall with her friends in Florida. After her parents head to town, a 45 minute drive from their new digs, Ava’s world comes crashing to a halt. Cole, who has been doing yard work for her father, comes pounding up the porch steps with unbelievable news – the zombie flu has arrived from China, and a band of zombies are about to eat them both.

Ava doesn’t believe him at first, but a glance at the shambling corpses quickly convinces her. Grabbing her purse, which holds her live saving EpiPen, she races into the woods with Cole. She’s desperate to stay alive and find her parents. With zero wilderness survival skills, it’s a miracle that Cole was there to shepherd her away from the zombies. He is familiar with the woods, he has extensive camping experience, and he has hunted on the mountain his entire life. And oh, yeah, he’s drop dead gorgeous.

I am not a big fan of roughing it, so Ava’s extreme roughing it adventure was spellbinding. She and Cole have practically no supplies, and did I mention that she is allergic to everything? One insect bite and she goes into anaphylactic shock. She is toast without her EpiPen. She has spent her entire life avoiding the great out doors, and now she’s fleeing through the woods from zombies, trying to avoid wasps, bees, and every other stinging creature out there. The zombies are the least of her worries. While they are certainly a threat, she can outrun them. A bug is a death sentence.

Dead Over Heels is a frantic race through the woods, battling hunger, the weather, bears, and the walking dead. With all of the adrenalin pounding through their systems, Ava and Cole are constantly in a state of distress. They hit it off like oil and water at first, due to their very different backgrounds. Cole thinks of Ava as a Floridiot, and Ava rudely calls Cole a redneck. As they are forced to rely on each other, and as they save each other from death time and again, they begin to develop feelings for each other. Who could blame them? They have no idea if anyone else is still alive, or whether everyone on the planet is now a stinky zombie. It’s comforting that they have each other.

Told in alternating POV, I found both Cole and Ava likable and relatable. I charged through Dead Over Heels, and I can hardly wait to see what’s next.

Grade: B

Review copy provided by publisher

From Amazon:

The end of the world just might be their perfect beginning…

Glenview, North Carolina. Also known—at least to sixteen-year-old Ava Pegg—as the Land of Incredibly Boring Vacations. What exactly were her parents thinking when they bought a summer home here? Then the cute-but-really-annoying boy next door shows up at her place in a panic…hollering something about flesh-eating zombies attacking the town.

At first, Ava’s certain that Cole spent a little too much time with his head in the moonshine barrel. But when someone—or something—rotted and terrifying emerges from behind the woodpile, Ava realizes this is no hooch hallucination. The undead are walking in Glenview, and they are hungry. Panicked, Ava and Cole flee into the national forest. No supplies, no weapons. Just two teenagers who don’t even like each other fighting for their lives. But that’s the funny thing about the Zombpocalypse. You never know when you’ll meet your undead end. Or when you’ll fall dead over heels for a boy…

McCreely, Havelock. 2014. My Zombie Hamster. New York: Egmont.See below for print copy giveaway details.Zombie Zappers and constant vigilence keep Matt and the residents of his community safe from "deadbeats" - the zombies that live outside the town's protective walls. So on Christmas Eve, December 24, Matt Hunter isn't thinking about zombies; he's thinking about the new video game he wants for Christmas. His mother, however, had a more educational, more nurturing idea. On December 25, Matt receives Snuffles the hamster—a dumb, boring, little pet. At least it was—until it died.

I'll say one thing for zombie hamsters. They don't move as slowly as their human counterparts. ... Snuffles had curled up and was rolling down the stairs like a bouncing ball. I raced after him. He bolted along the wall. Dad was carrying a huge pile of firewood inside so the front door was wide open. I tried to get ahead of Snuffles to slam it shut, but I tripped on one of the stupid throw rugs Mom insists on leaving everywhere and landed on my stomach. I pushed myself to my knees just in time to see Snuffles dart through the door and out into the front yard. Was it my imagination, or did I hear a little undead squeak of triumph as he did so?

In chapters titled with the days beginning on December 24, Matt chronicles all the events until everything comes to a head at the annual town pet show on Saturday, February 4.

Matt doesn't do it alone, however. He enlists the help of his friends,(excerpt from "Thursday, January 2")

I emailed Charlie and told her to come over. I couldn't keep it a secret any longer. "So let me get this straight," she said after I'd explained it to her. "Your dad bought you a hamster from a sleazy store and now it's turned into a zombie?" "Yes!" "And it's escaped?" "Yes!" "And you called it Snuffles?" she asked, trying not to laugh. "I didn't call it Snuffles! The name sort of came with the hamster. But now he's called —" I paused dramatically.— "Anti-Snuffles."

At 208 pages, this is a quick read, but despite the adorable cuteness of the cover, it's a suitable choice for older kids, too. My Zombie Hamster should appeal to grades 3-7. McCreely does a great job of combining the fear factor with humor. Matt and his friends are believable middle-schoolers - a little bit snarky, funny, sure of themselves, and prone to making poor choices. This is the first in a series that should have wide appeal.

With Halloween just around the corner, it's a good time for a zombie book - even better yet - a free zombie book for a lucky winner. Even if you don't win the book, you can enjoy my interview with Havelock McCreely, author of the very funny, My Zombie Hamster.

1.I’m shocked that MS Word will highlight McCreely as a misspelled word, but not Havelock. Do you need three syllables, or can you get it done in two?

HM: The name is Irish in origin, so the correct amount of syllables for authentic pronunciation is eight. (Or nine. It depends if you have all your own teeth or not.) But for our purposes, three will suffice.

2.I can find little about you on your “official” bio, other than “Teller of Tall Tales. Adventurer. Swordsman. Discoverer of the Fountain of Youth. Author of many great works, the latest of which is My Zombie Hamster.” Did your discovery of the Fountain of Youth pique your interest in longevity, thus inspiring your interest in zombies, or did another path bring you to zombies? I’ve drunk from your Fountain of Youth, by the way. It tastes terrible. One does wonder though, what would be the effect of the Fountain of Youth on a zombie?

HM:Many good questions there. My discovery of the fountain of youth is a story that would put Indiana Jones to shame. And perhaps it will one day be told. Many are the times I’ve thought about writing down my own adventures in a series of easy-to-read volumes aimed at the younger audience. Thrilling is not the word. Well, it’s one word. But there are many others. Exciting. Dangerous. Death-defying. Amazing. (For instance, there’s the time I took up with the traveling circus as they crossed the planes of Africa. This is where I saved one of my young protégés from a life of mind-numbing boredom cleaning up after hippogriffs. Then there’s the time I saved an entire city from the Witch King of Mallidar. And this is where I saved my second protégé. They booth accompanied me on my many adventures and were with me when I discovered the fabled city of Shangri-La (which lead directly to my discovery of the fountain of youth.) Perhaps someday these tales will be told.

As to the taste, yes, I agree. Like rusted metal filtered through an old sock in which cabbage has been boiled. It’s not pleasant.

Finally, as to my discovery of the fountain possibly inspiring my interest in zombies, yes. You are indeed correct. The fountain was guarded by a village of zombies who had all drunk from the fountain. It brought back their minds and consciousness (but did not repair their bodies.) That was where I got the idea of my little twist on zombies.

3.And of course, the most important question, what will Anti-Snuffles do next?

HM: Never fear, he will be back. I have recently put down my fountain pen and completed the second book in the series, Attack of the Zombie Clones. It features everything from the first book, but bigger, better, and undead-er.

Thanks for being a good sport, and best wishes to you for continued success with My Zombie Hamster.

Sorry for the extreme lack of blog posts and news on here. I've been very busy with lots of projects- including my first book as author. I usually just post quick news to my Facebook Page and Twitter. So feel free to follow me there, but I'll try to blog news more often. Lots of good monstery mayhem coming up!

The new George Brown , Class Clown book came out way back in August but it's Halloween themed, so I thought it was the right time to post about it. The brilliantly titled- Burp or Treat... Smell my Feet! is a double book Super Special and full of spooky and silly mischief from GB and his pals.

Once again, Stan Lee Media, the shell company that does nothing but line the pockets os lawyers with frivolous lawsuits, has been dealt a blow in their attempt to take over the world. The 9th Court of Appeals ruled that no, Stan Lee Media doesn’t not own Spider-Man.

I’ve written about Stan Lee Media and their endless lawsuits before. This time, they had been claiming tha tthey owned SPider-Man because Stan Lee, the founder of the company back in the go-go 90s, said they did. or something. No court has ever agreed with this reading of the law, and it was no different this time, Eriq Gardner reports:

SLMI might contend that it was assigned rights to valuable comic book characters, but a panel of appellate judges writes, “The record demonstrates that, between the date the [1998] agreement was signed and the filing of related litigation in 2007, SLMI never announced that it owned rights to these characters (even when publicly disclosing company information pursuant to a securities offering), licensed the characters, produced content related to the characters, or asserted or attempted to enforce its ownership rights.”

I can’t resist zombie stories, so I was intrigued when I saw Accumulation. Nothing quite gets one in the mood Christmas mood than having their pants scared off, so check out the excerpt and giveaway for this frosty zombie tale.

Title:Accumulation

Author: G.Nykanen

Genre: horror/zombie

Publish Date: November 28, 2014

Publisher: G.Nykanen

~ Book Synopsis ~

“…Frosty The Snowman was a jolly happy soul…” unless his once mortal form was infected with an unknown pathogen that’s turned him into a biting machine.Then Frosty doesn’t get a corncob pipe and a button nose…he gets two in the head.

Seeking a safe haven from the impending danger of the infected, Governor Steve Landis commandeers a rural peninsula at the top of his state to enact a grandiose plan outlined in the survival guide passed down to him by his great uncle.

People of the Bay Peninsula latch onto the ideals of their trusted official, desperate for sanctuary. But not Terry Riley. This hardened conspiracy theorist had packed up and fled to the north woods to join his son, who, like him does not trust the eager governor. In agreement on the uncertainty of the days to come, they journey to the family cabin to wait out the end of the world.

Try to avoid hypothermia as you plow through this bone-chilling blizzard of flesh tearing chaos, because snow isn’t the only thing accumulating on Christmas Eve in this neck of the woods.

Purchase Links

G. Nykanen was born and raised in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This small, rural land mass seems to cultivate a wide variety of colorful characters who provide a plethora of inspiration. The Point, Nykanen’s first novel, is filled with nuances of these local characters and the landscapes one might find in the north woods.

Well traveled thanks to her husband’s government career, she has lived in Europe and many of our United States over the last twenty years. She has recently returned home, moving back to her beloved Upper Peninsula where she resides with her husband and three children.

With The Point now completed, she will continue working on her next novel, Accumulation, along with continuing to develop other stories in the works.

Laney glared at her daughter; the stress of the morning had built quickly. Once again she faced the digital display on the stainless steel microwave, which was mounted above the induction cook-top. With her hands planted firmly on each side of the stove for support, she eyed the numbers: 7:20 and already on the verge. She studied her reflection in the microwave door. With professionally tousled hair and covered in the finest embellishments available for purchase at the local mall, her polished exterior was no indication of the mess that squatted within. She’d struggled, the last year or so, with some emotional issues. Her court-appointed therapist had suggested she visualize a gauge, “let’s call it your snap gauge,” she’d offered. Laney Riley stood in her high-end kitchen, visualizing the needle on her snap gauge, which was already in the orange, as she struggled with the stress of her rowdy sons and the promiscuity of her teenage daughter.

Elle, who at seventeen had the attention span of a gnat, had returned to surfing the Net.

“Mom! Mom, come see this, look what I found on YouTube.”

“You know I don’t like to watch anything on there, and besides, you shouldn’t be watching it either. I think restriction from the computer and a week of being grounded is on your schedule.”

“No, really, it’s crazy.”

Laney approached her daughter. “Move over a scosche would ya’, my ass is too big—I’ll hang off the end.”

Elle slid over in attempt to provide enough bench for her mother’s behind. “I can’t believe this footage.”

“What’s that? Oh my… is that a man?”

Mesmerized, they watched what appeared to be an African man in the midst of what seemed to be a series of seizures. He was lying on a dirt road, the fine dust clinging to his skin; it gave him a ghostly appearance. Several villagers had gathered around the poor soul. None of them came to his aid; they just kept their distance, simply spectators to the events that were unfolding before them.

Convulsions ripped through him in waves, every tendon in his body visible as his muscles tensed under the extreme strain of the violent episode. Dark, thick blood began to run from every orifice, cutting a path through the dust on his skin as he shook and flailed. With his back arched and his head thrown forward, he gurgled and groaned through his clenched teeth.

Laney was suddenly overcome with the impulse to shield her daughter’s eyes.

“What the hell, Mom?” she swatted her mother’s hand away from her face. “I’m seventeen, you don’t need to protect me.”

“It doesn’t look fake to me.” Elle re-opened the MacBook with every intention of viewing the video.

Laney couldn’t help but take one more peek herself. I’m sure if I really concentrate, I’ll find proof that it’s fake. “He does seem to really be suffering,” she was suddenly uneasy at the thought that whatever was happening to him could be real.

Once again they were sucked in, mesmerized by what unfolded before them. They both watched as he underwent this horrifying and seemingly real metamorphosis.

“You know,” Laney began to explain to her daughter, her head tilted to the side as she contemplated, “It kind of reminds me of those lycan movies… like he’s shifting.”

With his hands open and his palms facing skyward, he lurched and writhed as though he were pleading for divine intervention.

“Is that the sound of his bones cracking?” Elle gawked as his form twisted on the screen before them.

The bent and tensed fingers broke, each snapping loudly under the intense strain of the relentless spasms.

He was suddenly still, his joints bent and locked into configurations now more animal than human. His teeth were exposed to the gums, his mouth drawn into a snarl like some unknown force had pulled back his lips.

“Holy shit!” Elle cried. “You don’t think that’s what all the talk’s been about lately, do you?”

Laney cringed. “Don’t let your brothers see this.”

Just when they thought it was over, he popped up, lunging forward; the crowd scattered.

Startled, they jumped, the intense moment palpable even through the computer screen.

With great speed and agility, he moved, as he swept a man to the ground and tore into his flesh with his jutted jaw and extended teeth. He snapped, his head popping back and forth from his now distended neck. The camera kept filming as this now-rearranged man mauled an onlooker. Flesh was torn from tendon, as bits of tissue and sinew stretched from prey to predator, each tear followed by a gush of blood.

Unable to contain his horror, the filmmaker gasped with his heavy British accent, “Oh my god!”

The creature, now crouched on all fours, snapped his head, and turned in the direction of the camera. That’s when the filming stopped.

“What did we just see?” Laney sat mired in disbelief.

Elle was emphatic in her response. “I think we just saw a guy turn into something and then eat another guy.”

“Nonsense. I won’t believe it…I can’t. It’s just a farce, special effects.”

“Well, I’m convinced,” Elle crossed her arms at her chest.

“Convinced of what,” a familiar voice called from the kitchen doorway.

Laney turned to find her father-in-law, the shock of his presence plastered on her face. “What’re you doing here?”

Sue Riley, (Nan to the kids) crossed her arms and tapped her foot, already striking her judgmental posture.

Laney eyed her in-laws and then the dog. “Good job, if it was an intruder we’d all be dead.”

Spencer was still sleeping soundly, his nose stretched and pressed against the crack under the back door.

“My gut was telling me to flee Vegas. Weird news reports, brownouts, watering bans, felt like they were building up to something, made my ball hairs tingle, I didn’t like it. So I packed Ma into the car and started the drive north. I figured if the shit was going to hit the fan, this was the place to ride it out. I mean, could you imagine trying to survive out in that desert once the system broke down. The goddamn highway would be littered with bodies for miles. No water or air conditioning—certain anarchy.”

Elle harassed her grandfather. “Is this another one of your conspiracy theories, Pop?”

Now worked up, with his eyes glossed over, he flexed the tendons in his neck while his stiff and wiry gray hair stood at attention. It was unwavering as he flailed and gestured (in his typically violent fashion) while he explained his theory.

“No. You know they never tell you the whole story; trying to control the masses, manage the chaos by keeping us in the dark, only out to save themselves. Why do you think they try so hard to discredit people who’ve had encounters?” His thin but muscular arms tensed as he made air quotes. “And even if they don’t discredit them, they make them come off as crazy.”

The five o’clock shadow that coated his tanned and wrinkled face darkened the deep creases activated by his overly animated expressions. “Besides, it seems we got here just in time. If I hadn’t listened to that little voice telling me my government was lying to me, I wouldn’t have been able to get into town. National Guard vehicles were setting up a checkpoint.”

“What? What are you talking about? Why would they be doing that?” Laney’s anxiety multiplied. First the video, now a checkpoint, what the hell… With her hand now jammed into her sweater pocket, she rolled the pill bottle through her fingers, the sound of the powdery white pills tapping against the amber plastic a soothing lullaby for her tired nerves.

“To keep people in, or something else out. Probably whatever illness, or virus, or whatever’s been mentioned on the TV lately. Where is my son?” he transitioned abruptly as though it just occurred to him that he wasn’t present.

“He’s already down in his office. The ever-pressing needs of his job, I guess.”

Doolin Riley had left his station in D.C. when he was granted a virtual position to move his sick wife to a quieter setting. So now he analyzed his slice of the bureaucracy from his basement office.

Laney wished he were upstairs now; she didn’t think she could deal with the in-laws alone. (They made her self-conscious).

Both rail thin, she felt judged by them for her size and the size of her kids. They weren’t fat by any means, just thicker than Pop and Nan who subsisted on coffee and cigarettes.

Suddenly a high-pitched alarm blared from the television, cutting through the momentary lull in the kitchen. Laney clutched her chest, startled by the sudden noise.

Yay, they finally got Ship of the Dead at the library. I enjoyed Omega Days, and was eager to meet up with Xavier, Angie, Vlad, and Skye as they continued to navigate the terrifying new world they now shared with the walking dead. Not place is safe, no one can be trusted, and there’s always a ravenous dead monster ready to chomp you up! Yes, me, premium chicken sh!t, and enormous fan of zombie fiction.

Like Omega Days, Ship of the Dead is a lightning fast read. It’s all about the action, action, action, too, which makes it hard to put down. Told from multiple POVs, I did occasionally become irritated when one of my favorite characters was ignored for a few chapters. I always wanted Carney’s inmate buddy, TC, and the fallen televangist, Brother Peter, to DIE! Soon! Painfully! Perhaps even many times over. These guys are just scummy, and didn’t deserve to contaminate the air everyone else was breathing. Patience is a virtue, or so I’ve been told, but nothing would have been as satisfying as a rotting zombie grabbing one of these guys and biting off an ear. Or an arm. Even more fun would have been if Vlad’s Black Hawk had landed on them and smooshed them! One can only hope, and that hope, unfortunately, was not realized.

All of the splintered groups of human survivors from Omega Days join together on Alameda, and they decide, as a group, to storm the listing USS Nimitz, clear it of zombies, and make it their safe haven. Easier said than done, right? Right! With limited man power, training, and arms, this small group of determined refuges have nothing to lose. If they stay were they are, the walking dead will just eat them, eventually. But the ship will have power, medical supplies, food, and water! How could they not attempt it? It’s a suicide mission for many, and these are painful losses to a group that is so small to begin with.

I think Ship of the Dead shares many similarities with John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising, but with less (thankfully) military jargon. Or maybe there are only so many ways to present a zombie apocalypse. So it’s a good thing that I love my zombies! This really is one genre of horror that I never get tired of. I love reading about how people react to the monsters suddenly out to eat them, and more compellingly, how they react to other survivors. You’d think that everyone would be willing to work together to help everyone survive, because there’s strength in numbers, but nope! Some people are just evil and are out only for themselves. Why aren’t they the ones that get taken out early in the book??

If you enjoy zombie fiction, give this quick, adrenalin fueled books a try!

What’s your favorite zombie series?

Grade: B+ because it’s just that much fun!

Review copy obtained at my local library

From Amazon:

Father Xavier Church never wanted to be a leader. Nonetheless, he’s grown attached to his fellow survivors, and he won’t let anyone cause them harm—though he may be the one who inadvertently leads them to destruction…

Ex-con Bill Carnes may crave freedom, but he still prefers sticking with the group rather than fleeing to Mexico with his former cellmate TC. Maybe he’s changing. Or maybe the look in TC’s eyes is more dangerous than the undead…

EMT Rosa Escobedo gave up on hope after she watched the man she loved rise from the dead. But when a patient seems to start getting better, she can’t help but hope for a cure, even if it means risking her life…

As the numbers of the dead swell, the living are running out of safe havens—especially when the biggest threats lie within their own ranks.

I LOVE this series! I meant to read a romance on Valentine’s Day, but once I picked this up, I couldn’t put it down. This works fairly well as a jump on point for the series if you don’t want to go back and read the first two books (which you really should!). I think the action flowed better, and we finally get to find out what happened to Angie’s family. Some of it is devastating, because the real monsters in zombie fiction are usually the surviving humans.

The action picks up pretty much where it left off in Ship of the Dead. Angie, Vlad, Skye, and Carney are on the Black Hawk, headed to the safe house at Angie’s parents’ ranch. When they get there, all they discover is devastation. It looks like a small army has overrun the bunker, killing Angie’s father and cleaning out their stockpile of weapons and supplies. There’s no sign of Dean or Leah, so Angie staunchly believes that they are still alive. Dean is an urban warfare specialist; surely he found a way to keep himself and their daughter alive.

Told through a series of flashbacks and present time chapters, at first I was a little confused by the flow of time. Probably because I had to think, just a teeny bit, and I usually don’t like to do that when reading about zombies. Just let them keep coming, and the protagonists keep running away, and I’m happy. The timing of the events jumped around, ebbing back to Dean and Leah, and then surging to Angie’s frantic efforts to find him. It all ties up near the end, but it was a slight shift from previous installments in the series, and it took me a few chapters to get used to.

We have a whole new cast of characters to love to hate, and I was counting down the pages until they meet their long overdue end. This time, it’s a bunch of bikers and an Army deserter kicking the ant hill, and boy, did I want to see these guys suffer. A couple of them got off way too easily, and I thought they deserved worse than they got. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as the scum that sacrifices his companions to zombies, only to end up outwitting himself and getting eaten in the end. Yeah! Or the guy who brutalizes everyone, and then gets turned on, meeting a bloody, justified fate.

Once again, the fighting is fierce, the zombies are relentless, and the bad humans are BAD HUMANS! All of those new characters to wish death upon, as well as a few to cheer for their survival. I think that’s why I enjoy the series so much; I get so caught up in the characters and their struggles (both good and bad) to survive, and the tension is so great that it’s hard to disengage from the story. I save these for the weekend, so I don’t have to go anywhere and can just sit like a lump and read them to the last page.

There’s a scary new type of zombie, and I can hardly wait for September, when Crossbones hits store shelves, to find out more about them. If you are a chicken sh!t like me, read this on an eReader at night, turn off the lights, and prepare to be FREAKED out! Fun, fun read

Grade: A-

Review copy obtained from my local library

From Amazon:

The survivors of the Omega Virus make a desperate effort to find the living. But the walking dead aren’t done with them yet…

Helicopter pilot Vladimir Yurish is a man of his word. The last thing he wants is to abandon the safety of the U.S.S. Nimitz and his newly adopted son Ben. Still, a promise is a promise, no matter how close to death it brings him…

Angie West has fought hard to keep strangers alive, but now it’s time to tend to her own. Only, when she finds her family missing and their hideout burned and looted, she realizes the threat to her family isn’t just the undead—the living can do so much worse…Halsey has done well for himself, given the circumstances. Between his secluded ranch and precise shooting, the plague hasn’t touched him. Until a Black Hawk crashes on his property, bringing the war to his front door…

Amid the chaos of a destroyed civilization, the survivors encounter a new threat. And these new monsters can’t be outrun—or outwitted…